You're the Cure
by cameraangles
Summary: Post 6x17. Now that Damon has the cure, how will Elena react?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I just wanted to explore how Damon and Elena might handle the situation with the cure. I'm also incorporating some filming spoilers for 6x20! If you guys like the story, let me know and I'll keep going. There would probably only be one or two more parts! **

**Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Will you go somewhere with me this weekend?"

Elena was thrown off-guard by how uncharacteristically tentative Damon's voice was. "Why wouldn't I? Why do you sound so weird?" She wished they were having this conversation in person instead of over the phone so she could see his facial expressions.

"Well, I'm not exactly proposing a weekend at the lake. I want to take you back to 1994 for a couple of days."

"The prison world?" Elena blurted incredulously. "Why in the hell would we go back there?"

Damon sighed. "It's hard to explain, but there are some things we need to talk about. Something I need to tell you. And I just…" his voice trailed off for a moment before he continued, "I want to tell you there."

"Okay?" Elena said, still confused, but willing to go along with his plan. "You sound really serious. Should I be worried?"

"No!" Damon was quick to answer. "Not worried. Nothing is wrong, I promise."

"Okay," Elena said, a little less anxiously. "So, you'll ask Bonnie to take us back?"

"I already talked to her about it, actually. She's going to zap us over there and wait at her Grams' old house until we're ready to go back."

"Right then," Elena said in agreement. "I'll see you tonight."

* * *

"You both ready?" Bonnie said, looking back and forth between them. Seeing them both nod in assent, she began the spell.

Once they were transported, Bonnie looked around warily. "I hate this place," she muttered. Raising her eyebrows at Damon in a clear 'You Owe Me!' expression, she mouthed "good luck" before nodding at them both and gesturing toward town. "I'll meet you at my Grams' house when you're ready to go back."

* * *

"Are you finally going to tell me what this is all about?" Elena demanded as soon as they were alone.

Damon grabbed her hand and started leading her toward town before nodding. "Yeah, let's go."

Elena took one last look at the empty plot where her parents' graves would one day stand as they left the cemetery.

Surprised when Damon walked past the road leading to the Salvatore house, Elena glanced at him. "We aren't staying at home?"

"In a manner of speaking," Damon said. "We're actually headed to _your_ old home."

"Is that why you brought me back here? To see my old house?"

"That, and the old Mystic Falls. Your house is still standing. Your parents' graves haven't been dug. All the people that have been killed by vampires in the past few years are still alive. I know we can't see them right now, but this place represents the past. A version of the town that doesn't exist anymore."

As Damon spoke, they reached the Gilbert house and settled down on the porch swing. "Before I tell you why I made you come here, I just wanted you to remember how things used to be. How innocent the town was before the tomb vampires were released. Before Stefan and I moved back. Before Katherine, the Originals and everything else that has happened. When you were a normal high school girl living in this house with your brother."

"Damon…" Elena started, trying to decide how she felt about the turn the conversation was taking. "Why does the past suddenly matter so much? We can't change anything."

Damon jerked at Elena's statement and she met his gaze in astonishment. "Damon! What is going on with you?"

Meeting her eyes, he turned to face her and grabbed both her hands in his. "What if you could change things, Elena? Get back a piece of the past that you've lost?"

"I…don't…" Elena shook her head in confusion. She could tell from his expression that Damon was deeply serious about whatever he was saying, but she had no idea what he was trying to get across.

He blew out a breath before continuing. "Remember when we convinced the nutjob to help us contact Bonnie on her birthday?"

"Yeah…" Elena said slowly. "She was upset, and Jeremy went back to save her."

"Right," Damon nodded. "But before that, we talked about getting her to see the atlas with my notes on Nova Scotia."

"So she could get the headstone," Elena said quickly, starting to lose her patience with the conversation.

"And you asked me what made me think of Nova Scotia to begin with, remember?"

"Yeah, so?"

Damon smiled sadly. "Not an hour went by in this place that I didn't think of you. Being here, at your house, made me wonder how much better off you'd have been if you'd never met me or my brother. You'd probably still be living here with Jeremy…and hell, maybe even Jenna."

"Damon," Elena interrupted. "What the hell! Why are you talking about all of this?"

He squeezed his eyes shut for a few tense seconds before releasing one of her hands to reach into his coat pocket. "Because Bonnie knew why I wanted to go to Nova Scotia, and she brought me a little souvenir from her trip."

Starting to get an idea of where this was heading, Elena jerked out of the swing. "Damon…" she said warningly as she backed away from him.

He smiled sadly at her as he held out his hand. "The cure," he said quietly.

Elena stared at his hand like it was a snake about to strike. "I don't even – I can't believe…" she said haltingly, her voice faint.

"I can't either," Damon said grimly, his expression unreadable.

Finally meeting his gaze, Elena's pupils were dilated with shock. "You were planning to get that for me? You want me to…?"

Damon shrugged. "When Bonnie first handed it to me, I wanted to shove it down the garbage disposal. This damn thing haunted me when you first became a vampire, and apparently it's the gift that keeps on giving."

"So why are you even telling me about it?"

Damon sighed. "Because, Elena. I'm a selfish asshole. I spent the better part of a century and a half not caring about anybody but myself." He stood up as he spoke and walked toward Elena until he was standing directly in front of her. As he pressed the cure into her hands, he continued in a soft voice, "But what I want doesn't matter, not when it comes to you."

"Damon," Elena whispered, unable to say anything else.

Still meeting her gaze determinedly, Damon managed a weak smile. "You didn't want to be a vampire, Elena. This isn't the life you wanted for yourself. You wanted to grow up, have a career, get married with kids and a picket fence and the whole human experience." Damon waved his hands in the air. "Now, you can have all of that back."

"But what about you? And Caroline and Stefan?" Elena shook her head, still in a great deal of shock.

Damon shrugged. "What about us? Taking this doesn't mean dying. We'll all still be here."

Elena took a few steps back, trying to wrap her head around what was happening. "So you actually want me to take it?"

"This isn't about me," Damon shook his head. "This is about you and having the chance to get back the life you deserve!"

"So you brought me back to 1994 to shove the cure in my hands and send me on my merry way?"

"I brought you back here to tell you that the normal, human life you thought was gone forever is actually possible again!" Damon snapped.

"Most of my friends are supernatural, Damon! I was a doppelganger even before I was a vampire! I'm pretty sure a normal life was never in the cards."

Damon scrubbed his hands through his hair. "What do you want me to say, Elena?"

Staring at the cure in her hands, Elena sighed. "I want you to tell me why you're really doing this."

Damon growled under his breath and paced impatiently for a few moments before finally exploding. "I'm doing this because I love you, Elena! I fell in love with you when you were human and obsessed with my brother. And I've loved every version of you since! When you turned, when your emotions were off, it didn't matter. Even now that we're standing here and you don't even remember going through any of that with me, I still love you. All I've ever wanted is for you to be happy. If that means you taking the cure, then that's what I want for you." He looked at her desperately.

Staring back and forth between Damon and the cure, Elena stepped forward and reached out to touch his cheek. "Damon," she said softly, her voice deep with emotion. "I can't believe you'd actually…" her voice trailed off and she staggered back a few steps.

Damon reached out to steady her. "Elena?" he asked in concern.

She gripped his arm. "Do you hear that?" she asked breathlessly.

…_It was my birthday…It was the most selfless that he's ever been…I knew how much it hurt him, but he did it…for that moment, I loved him…_

The last thing Elena registered before passing out was Damon's worried voice asking "Hear what?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback! This one does end on a positive note, but hopefully things don't feel completely resolved yet, because I've got one more chapter in mind. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

When Elena shot awake, she looked around frantically. Registering that she was on the couch in her old living room, she managed to focus on the worried face next to her.

"Bonnie? What the hell happened?"

Bonnie raised her eyebrows. "I was hoping you'd tell me."

"I…don't…" Elena shook her head, at a total loss.

"Damon said you guys were talking, you started acting weird and talking about hearing things, and then you just collapsed. Whatever it was, you sure freaked him the hell out!"

Elena scrubbed her face. "I can't remember what happened. I think I…Damon brought us here to tell me something?"

Bonnie frowned. "The cure? You don't remember him giving it to you?"

…_Take the cure with me. That's how much I know this is real. That's how certain I am that I'm going to love you even after this is all over…_

"The cure!" Elena gasped violently and jumped off the couch. "Oh my god! Bonnie, where is he? I have to talk to Damon! I remember everything!"

"Everything?" Bonnie's jaw dropped. "Like…everything everything?"

"When he gave me the cure, it triggered a memory and I started getting this rush of memories…of Alaric's compulsion…of everything I forgot." Elena's face lit up. "Bonnie, I need to see Damon! Why isn't he here?"

Bonnie grinned. "He'll be back. Since we didn't know what happened to you, he was worried you'd need blood. He's on a hospital run."

"I can't believe this is happening," Elena said as she collapsed back on the couch. "How could I have erased all of those memories? He must have been devastated when he came back." Elena rested her face in her hands. "He came back, but I'd already abandoned him. How could he possibly forgive me?"

"Hey," Bonnie said gently. "You're together, aren't you? You didn't abandon him. You did what you had to do to survive. When he came back, you just ended up falling for him all over again. I'm sure that wasn't exactly hard on his already massively oversized ego."

Elena managed a choked laugh. "And now here we are, back to fighting over the cure."

"Fighting?" Bonnie asked curiously. "So you don't want to take it?"

"You know me, Bonnie. Did you really think I would?"

"No," Bonnie smiled. "But I know Damon now too. He's never believed that you'd choose this life if you had a chance to take it all back."

"I bet I can make him," Elena said with a raised eyebrow.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "That sounds like my cue to make myself scarce again."

"No, wait!" Elena said before Bonnie could get up. "Wait here and tell him to meet me at home." She looked around as she continued, "This house is in the past. And I'm all done with his walk down memory lane."

* * *

When Elena got to the boarding house, she set a fire and settled on the couch to wait. What better place to knock some sense into Damon then the place they'd hashed things out so many times before?

She heard him seconds before he appeared in front of her. "Elena?" he asked worriedly as he looked her over. "You're really okay? What was that? What the hell happened?"

"Shock? Panic? Who knows," Elena shrugged. "I probably should have fed before we made this little trip."

Damon nodded slowly. "Well here, I grabbed this for you," he said as he tossed her a blood bag.

"Thanks," Elena said as she made a show of drinking it.

"Mmmhmm," Damon said, clearly not quite ready to accept her story. "Are you sure you're okay? Vampires aren't exactly known for randomly passing out. And hearing voices is never a good sign. What exactly did you hear?"

Elena shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does! Elena-"

"Seriously Damon," Elena interrupted. "Let's get back to the cure."

"Maybe we should wait until you've had a chance to recover from whatever the hell that was. We can talk about this later. You need to-"

"We're going to talk about it now," Elena said firmly. "I remember what you said. About loving me, about choosing my happiness over yours?"

Damon threw up his hands in frustration. "So what, Elena? None of that should come as a surprise to you! Or hell, maybe it does since you've technically only known me for a few weeks. Which, now that I think about it, is another good point!"

Elena tried to interrupt. "No, Damon. I-"

"Let me finish!" he snapped. "Why the hell does what I think even matter so much? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you don't think of me as Psychotic-Killer-Damon anymore, but nothing I say should be enough to keep you from taking the cure if that's what you want!"

"DAMON!" Elena shouted, finally getting his attention and stopping his rant. "Why the hell are you so sure I want to take the stupid cure?"

"I…" Caught off guard, Damon opened and closed his mouth a few times before deciding what to say. "It's what you've always wanted. The look of devastation on your face when you woke up and realized you were dead? The hope in your eyes when I told you there might be a cure? Those expressions are burned into my brain, Elena. Not a week goes by that I don't wish you could have your life back. The one you thought you'd lost. Why are you being so damn stubborn?"

"You don't think I've changed since then?" Elena asked. "That my priorities might be different? That, given the choice, I'd choose Caroline and Stefan as my family? That I'd choose you?"

"How can you say that Elena?" Damon asked in a defeated voice. "I would never want you to give up a chance at humanity, not because of me! I loved you when you were human, that won't change this time around either. I'm not just going to toss you the cure and hit the road! And you don't have to give up Caroline and Stefan. We'll all still be here."

"You're being a bullheaded jackass," Elena snapped in frustration.

"And you're acting completely insane!" Damon yelled back. "How can you suddenly be so sure that you want to be with me forever? A few weeks ago, you were literally running away from me in disgust!"

Elena watched him in silence for a few minutes as he paced impatiently back and forth in front of the fireplace. Time to give him a reality check.

"Because," Elena started as she stood up to walk over to him, "I've never been sorry that I met you. You make me question everything, and you make me feel more alive than anyone else ever has." Stopping directly in front of him, she cupped his face in her hands and met his shocked gaze. "You are the best decision I've ever made, and…" she leaned her forehead against his and finished in a whisper, "I am so in love with you."

"Elena…" Damon's voice was rough with surprise as he slowly wrapped his arms around her. "You're…you? You remember?"

"I remember everything," Elena said unevenly as she threw her arms around him and buried her face against his neck, finally letting the tears fall. "God, I missed you. I'm so sorry, Damon. I'm so sorry! I should never have-"

"Hey," Damon interrupted gently, pulling back enough to wipe her tears away with his thumbs. "You said it yourself – you found your way back to me. You don't have to be sorry for anything."

"But I should have known! I should never have believed you were-"

"What, dead?" Damon interrupted again. "You're pretty new to this whole immortal life business. You get a free pass, okay?" He ran his fingers through her hair with a smirk. "Just remember all this for next time, huh? The universe doesn't control anything, remember?"

Elena managed a choked laugh. "The universe?" she scoffed as she slowly pulled his face down to hers. Just before their lips met, she whispered, "What I feel for you is so much bigger than the universe."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks for reading, you guys! Hope you're satisfied with the ending...**

* * *

Once they made it back to the present, Elena looked at Damon. "So now it's your turn to go somewhere with me. You up for it?"

Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "My girl whisking me off to a mystery location? Bring it."

* * *

When Elena parked the car, Damon got out and looked around. "You know," he said, eyeing the dock, "I thought this night was gone forever. That you'd never remember."

"I know," Elena said as she walked over to grab his hand and squeeze it. "I'm so sorry. I really am! I-"

"Stop, Elena. You don't have to keep apologizing. Really."

"Well," Elena said with a sarcastic twist in her voice, "You _are_ the one who told me that we went home because I was cold and miserable. You forgot to mention the part where we promised to be together forever."

"And yet we ended up back here together anyway," Damon said, smirking.

"Of course we did! That forever you promised me is just getting started," Elena shot back.

"Yeah, about that. Elena…" Damon started to say before being cut off.

"I swear, Damon. If you keep bringing up that damn cure…I told you I don't want it!"

"Elena, you need to think about this. What about Jeremy and Bonnie and Ric? Even Lockwood and Donovan. They're your family. You'd get to be human with them – raise your families together and get all humaney and old together."

"The part of me that wanted that life is gone," Elena said firmly. "You, Stefan and Caroline are my family. Of course I still love Jer, and Bonnie, and Ric and everyone else – but I still get to be a part of their lives. I can watch them raise their kids. I can even be a part of it! We can watch over their families for generations."

"Besides," Elena continued as she led him to the edge of the dock to sit, "Who exactly is it do you think I'd be raising kids with? The only two men I've ever really loved are both vampires. I came to terms with that a long time ago."

Damon just looked at her silently, not knowing what to say.

"Now, what else was it you mentioned me giving up earlier? A career? I'll be a more successful doctor as a vampire! I can work on a torture-free version of the research my dad did with our blood. And a picket fence? Please. We live in a mansion, Damon. You're loaded! I think that area is covered."

"You're making it sound so simple…but it's not. You know it's not!"

"Nothing about our lives has been easy since we met, Damon. That doesn't mean it isn't worth fighting for! So what if this isn't the life I would have chosen for myself a few years ago? I didn't know this world existed then, I didn't know all the things about myself that I know now." She stopped briefly to rub her nose against his cheek. "I didn't know you."

"I don't understand why you keep acting like I'm worth giving up a normal life for!" Damon said. "Especially now that you have your memories back. Don't you remember all the fighting we did before I died? All the times I screwed up and you had to clean up the mess. Why would you choose this life for yourself?"

"Easy," Elena started. "You told me earlier that you've loved every version of me? Well every version of me has fallen in love with you! Over and over again."

"Elena, you don't have to do this. We can just-"

"No, I want to. Let me talk, okay?" Elena said, smiling as she caressed his cheek. "You deserve to hear this, and I think you need to." She took a deep breath before continuing. "When I became a vampire, I was terrified of myself. I tried so hard to feel nothing. But you made me feel _everything_."

She paused to laugh. "Once, before you came back, when my memories were gone, I was with Stefan and he got so frustrated with me talking about you like I barely knew you at all. He snapped and told me that I'd compelled you away. That I couldn't handle losing you because you'd always been the one that inspired me. That you forced me to accept the parts of myself I couldn't even let anyone else see." She squeezed his hand. "You've always been the one that made it okay not to be perfect, that made it safe to embrace the darkness in myself I was always so scared of, even when I was human."

"Then you came back," Elena continued, "And even when I was so against it at first, being around you felt different. It ended up being so easy to trust you, to fall in love with you all over again. I don't know if it's because the feelings were still inside me somewhere or if we just started all over again, but it doesn't matter. Even with my memories gone, you made me feel alive."

"Speaking of those memories," Damon said, unable to stop his growing smile as he wrapped an arm around her waist, "why did they suddenly come rushing back? And don't tell me you don't know."

"Okay," Elena said, grinning. "But first, why don't you tell me when you think I fell in love with you?"

Damon shrugged. "You just said it, you understood me better when you became a vampire."

Elena shook her head. "I also told you that you're the only one that could really reach me, even as a human."

"Come on, Elena. Human you was Team Stefan all the way."

"Hey," Elena said forcefully, "I did love him. He's the first thing that made me want to really live again after my parents died. But that was a long time ago, and there was a lot about life I didn't understand yet. He was trying so hard to act human, and I was trying so hard to be the person I was before my parents died. He didn't want me to see his darkness, and I couldn't even accept my own. When things went wrong, we both turned to you, not each other. Stefan went to you with his vampire problems, just like I did. We were both trying so hard to live up to our expectations of each other that we didn't even notice at first."

"Notice what?" Damon asked warily, uncomfortable with talking about her relationship with Stefan.

"That even though I loved him, I didn't trust him, not completely. I trusted _you_. The way I felt about Stefan? It was real, it was an important part of my life, but it wasn't built to last." Elena shook her head. "When Alaric was compelling my memories away, he told me that once we got to the signature moment when I first fell in love with you, changing that one memory would bulldoze through the rest of them and reprogram everything else at once."

"Okay?" Damon said, prompting her to continue.

"Well, we went through a lot of memories." Elena snorted. "I couldn't come up with the one he was looking for. We both got pretty pissed off about it, too. He even called Caroline for advice!"

"And did Blondie come up with some magical insight?"

"Actually, yeah. She forced me to confront what I've never been able to acknowledge, even to myself. She told Ric that I couldn't admit when I fell in love with you because it happened when I was still with Stefan."

"Elena," Damon said, shaking his head. "We all dealt with that. It took Stefan awhile to stop blaming the sire bond, but he came around. You changed when you became a vampire, that isn't your fault!"

Elena rolled her eyes. "You aren't hearing me, Damon."

"Hearing what?" Damon asked incredulously. "I'm trying to be wise and insightful here!"

"I didn't fall in love with you after I turned, Damon." Elena said with a small smile. "I know that I chose Stefan the night I died. That version of me was so scared of you, scared of the things you made me feel. Scared of the way you made me question myself and what I wanted out of life. Stefan was the safe choice, the comfortable one. So, you see? Dying didn't make me fall in love with you, it just made me stop denying who I really am."

"And who is that?" Damon asked as he rubbed his hand up and down her back.

Elena smiled and tangled their fingers together. "The girl who fell in love with you on her eighteenth birthday. That recognized how hard it was for you to give her the necklace when you knew what it stood for. The girl that understood how selfless you were being and loved you for it."

"Seriously?" Damon shook his head in mock regret. "I knew I should have made a move on you that night."

"Don't ruin it," Elena said, elbowing him in the gut. "Besides, that's why my memories came back. Because you did it all over again, with the cure."

"Ahh," Damon said knowingly. "So you were once again so overcome by my selfless heroism that you fainted in my arms?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Come on Damon, be serious."

Damon nodded. "I just don't know what to say. We never talked about any of this before."

"Because it was messy. There were things I couldn't even admit to myself until they were compelled out of me! And you guys are brothers, the less we talked about it, the easier it was for you both."

"Still," Damon ran his thumb across Elena's cheek. "I'm glad you told me."

Elena leaned into Damon's touch. "I just don't ever want you to doubt the way I feel for you – the way I've always felt. I've never been able to see a future with anyone but you."

"And you know I don't even want a future unless I can spend it with you. But Elena-"

"No! No buts, Damon. Not wanting the cure isn't just about you – it's about me, too. The person I am now? I'm happy, it feels right. I don't think I could go back to being a human, not after everything we've been through. Everything I've done. It isn't a sacrifice or the lesser of two evils – it isn't even really a choice. Like I said, I have career goals I want to accomplish as a vampire. There are plenty of people in our life who will have kids I can help protect. And more than anything else, I want to be with you forever. Forget getting married as a human – we can get married over and over again. This is the life I want."

"Married over and over again, huh? Once isn't enough?"

Elena laughed and stood up, tugging Damon up with her. "I'm never going to have enough of anything with you."

Facing each other just like they did the first time they stood on the dock in the rain, they smiled.

"I can't wait to spend eternity with you," Damon said softly as he wrapped his arms around her.

"And I can't wait to spend forever loving you," Elena whispered as their lips finally met.


End file.
